Scope of the Conference

Swarm intelligence is a relatively new
discipline that deals with the study of self-organizing processes
both in nature and in artificial systems. Researchers in ethology
and animal behavior have proposed many models to explain
interesting aspects of social insect behavior such as
self-organization and shape-formation. Recently, algorithms
inspired by these models have been proposed to solve difficult
computational problems.

An example of a particularly successful research direction in
swarm intelligence is ant colony optimization,
the main focus of which is on discrete optimization problems. Ant
colony optimization has been applied successfully to a large
number of difficult discrete optimization problems including the
traveling salesman problem, the quadratic assignment problem,
scheduling, vehicle routing, etc., as well as to routing in
telecommunication networks. Another interesting approach is that
of particle swarm optimization, that focuses on
continuous optimization problems. Here too, a number of
successful applications can be found in the recent literature.
Swarm robotics is another relevant field. Here,
the focus is on applying swarm intelligence techniques to the
control of large groups of cooperating autonomous robots.

ANTS 2014 will give researchers in swarm intelligence the
opportunity to meet, to present their latest research, and to
discuss current developments and applications.
The three-day conference will be held in Brussels, Belgium, on
September 10-12, 2014.

Relevant Research Areas

ANTS 2014 solicits contributions dealing with any aspect of swarm
intelligence. Typical, but not exclusive, topics of interest are:

Behavioral models of social insects or other animal societies
that can stimulate new algorithmic approaches.